Atheists Dancing on Robertson’s Grave

Today, Pat Robertson died. My first reaction was a touch of sorrow. I didn’t agree with a lot of what he said, but he’s a brother in Christ, so far as I can tell, and, generally speaking, death makes me sad. There is a group, however, that was not sad, that being the somewhat militant atheist group. They are actively celebrating his death, which makes me sad, but also confuses me a bit.

I’ll be completely honest: I didn’t follow Robertson all that closely. The only time I really thought about him much was when a hurricane to terrorist act strikes the country, and he’d hop on TV to blame this group or that. I get, then, some of the anger some groups have with him. What strikes me as odd, though, is that these people, who generally reject religion and any idea of “god”, are using those very symbols to celebrate and mock his death. “The gates of Hell have opened.” “Burn in Hell” etc. I get that, for many, these are just things you say, not an expression of any sort of actual belief or theology.

What makes it peculiar to me, though, is that, if they are right — that there’s no God, this life is all there is, we’re just worm food when we die — then their celebration of his death is just as meaningless as his life was — on their world view — leading up to it. If there is no God, then there’s probably no hell, and despite all the pain he may or may not have inflicted unjustly in life goes unpunished. They’re left holding party favors that are ultimately meaningless, as is their own lives.

If Pat was right about Jesus, though — and I think he was and is — then any of those unjustified pains, mistakes, etc, will have to be answered for, but so will the good he did now that he “stands in the presence of His glory, blameless with great joy”. More importantly, he’s standing with Jesus, now completely holy, so while they celebrate the death of someone they hated, he’s celebrating his “death” as it has taken him home. Only one of those two parties is truly happy.